Re: [PATCH qemu-kvm] Add raw(af_packet) network backend to qemu

[Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>]

On 01/26/2010 02:47 PM, Anthony Liguori wrote:
> On 01/26/2010 02:40 PM, Sridhar Samudrala wrote:
>> This patch adds raw socket backend to qemu and is based on Or Gerlitz's
>> patch re-factored and ported to the latest qemu-kvm git tree.
>> It also includes support for vnet_hdr option that enables gso/checksum
>> offload with raw backend. You can find the linux kernel patch to support
>> this feature here.
>>     http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.network/150308
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Sridhar Samudrala<sri@us.ibm.com>
>
> See the previous discussion about the raw backend from Or's original 
> patch.  There's no obvious reason why we should have this in addition 
> to a tun/tap backend.
>
> The only use-case I know of is macvlan but macvtap addresses this 
> functionality while not introduce the rather nasty security problems 
> associated with a raw backend.

Not to mention that from a user perspective, raw makes almost no sense 
as it's an obscure socket protocol family.

A user wants to do useful things like bridged networking or direct VF 
assignment.  We should have -net backends that reflect things that make 
sense to a user.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori